Discipline

When I was a kid, one of the accepted forms of discipline was "the strap".  You could get the strap at school or at home.  

As a kid from the Caribbean, the belt had a special place in the home.  If you know what I mean.  Misbehave, and you had to hide for the rest of that day if you knew what was good for you.  Even then, when you thought that you'd avoided it, wham, what you did had not been forgotten.  

It was a time anyway that children were seen and not heard, goes the saying.  That was awful 'cause I had a mouth that always had something to say, even if it was under my breath.  

I remember at school when I muttered something to myself and the teacher heard me and declared that she was going to wash my mouth out with soap.  Boy, was I pissed off.  I wished that I could have washed her mouth out with soap.  Yeah, I was a sassy mouthed child.  Still am to this day mind you.

I learned to mind my p's and q's because this girl didn't like "the licks".  Plus, at school they used a ruler to hit you on the hand if you weren't paying attention or otherwise.

Discipline sucks!!  Almost forgot that I'm a parent too.

My daughter of late has not been listening and following through when asked to do something.  I keep getting the  "can I have 5 more minutes, mom?"  The kid is always bargaining with me.  She'd make a good lawyer.

I'll tell her to put away her book and go to bed for example.  When I come back about fifteen minutes later, there she is, still reading. 

After several incidents like this, I asked her what she would do in my place.  Her response was that she should lose her privilege of going outside to play with her friends.  

There it is.  That's the best response because that's exactly what I would do.  She knows me well.